China’s new “Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services” will be fully implemented across the country from 1 September onwards. The regulations, which are designed to limit the religious content that individuals and institutions are allowed to share online, have been rolling out in part over the last 6 months.
According to an article by China Christian Daily, “all the registered and underground churches and Christian organizations across China are waiting to see how the rules will be thoroughly carried out from September 1.”
The regulations began early as 1 March of this year. The house churches have seen their WeChat accounts destroyed and their websites shut down or greatly restricted since then. Catholics in China that was shut down for failing to properly register under these new restrictions.
The new regulations are part of a wider effort by the Chinese government to infiltrate religious teaching in China with Chinese nationalism and socialist thought. The new laws, comprised of five chapters and thirty-six articles, say that online preaching and the sharing of religious content should be organized and performed by religious organizations that have obtained the “Internet Religious Information Service License.”